I hate making mistakes. But, like everyone, I make them more often than I would like to admit. And I feel better about learning things the hard way (which sometimes seems like the only way I can learn a lesson) if someone else can be spared some stress and frustration from my foibles. So, today, I am going to share five mistakes that I have made while building my content marketing writing business in hopes that you learn from my mistakes.

Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Not Having a Website. I am embarrassed to admit this in public, but I didn’t get a website online until late 2012 after I had been freelancing full-time for over four years. I used a combination of my Contently portfolio as well as my LinkedIn profile and thought I was doing just fine. I kept putting it off because I thought I could save money by designing it myself. I finally broke down and hired someone, which was one of the best business decisions I have made. My website looks much better than I could have created on my own, and I would have spent more hours than the rate I paid her. My business doubled the year after launching my website, and almost every week brought new inquiries from prospective client contacts me who found me through my website.
2. Not Continually Marketing Myself. Last fall, I got super busy at work. Like, I had two months in a row that were each my best month ever income-wise in six years of freelancing. I worked many long days and a few weekends to finish all of the projects that came my way. During that time, I pretty much stopped marketing myself because I was so busy with paying work that the last thing I wanted at the time was more work. But a few months later, I woke up one morning and realized that I had very little work left on my to-do list. I got to working marketing my tail off and rounded up some great new clients, but I lost several weeks of income simply because I didn’t make time for marketing. Now I try to set a minimum number of LOIs to each week, no matter how busy I am.
3. Sending a LOI with the wrong company or client name. Like many writers, I have a base template for my letter of introduction that I customize for each potential client. Since sometimes I copy and paste from a letter I sent a few days ago, I have accidentally sent a letter to a new client with the company name of another brand or company. Yikes. And yes, the few times I have done this, I never heard back. I then created a template that I save in a Word document and I highlight the sections that I need to customize in neon yellow with a notation like [Insert Company Name  Here]. So, when I copy the text into a new email to send, it is blatantly obvious if I have not changed a name.
4. Underpricing Myself. When the phone conversation started, I told the client that my rate was $250 for the blog article she wanted. But somewhere during the 10 minutes we were on the phone, she convinced me to write several posts for her at $50 apiece. Yes, I know this is awful. But I felt bad for her and wanted to help her succeed. I could tell you countless stories where I have taken jobs with a low rate for the wrong reasons. This wasn’t a case of a job where I cared about the person or the cause, just a business coach who found me online. For my own personality, I have found that negotiating through email works best for me because I don’t have to tell a person ‘no’ over the phone.
5. Thinking I Can Write About Any Topic. I have finally learned my lesson that I should stick to topics in content marketing with which I am familiar. While with journalism, I can write on any topic, that just isn’t true with content marketing. And when I do this, I make a much lower rate as well as potentially tick off what could be a long term clients. But by focusing on technology, hospitality, business and finance, I can make a good rate because I can get a deliverable completed quickly as well as having satisfied clients.

Have you made any of these mistakes? How do you solve them? Any other blunders you want to share?